


Time

by Tamari



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 21:56:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamari/pseuds/Tamari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time doesn't go by normally for the royal couple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seconds

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes the smallest things can mean the most. / Kaddar/Kalasin, written for SMACKDOWN at Goldenlake.

These are the seconds that belong to them.  
 _  
The stare he gives her when one of his advisors starts to repeat the same sentence over and over. The quick smile she gives in reply before cutting the rambler off with an insightful comment. All the conspiratorial glances._

_Kaddar grabbing her hand under the banquet table. Kally’s affectionate kick when Kaddar starts to doze off during the day. Their shoulders touching as they walk through the palace._

_The split second before they fall all the way into sleep. Kally’s flashing eyes when she comes from the healer, telling him even in a meeting exactly what the news is. The moment Kaddar disregards propriety and jumps up to embrace her and her softly swollen stomach._

These are the seconds that eclipse all the other ones, the ones Kaddar and Kalasin spend bored, angry, hurt, or even homesick.

These are the seconds that make everything worth it.


	2. Minutes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nobody lets them have time to themselves.

Their life in Carthak is made up of minutes that don't matter to anyone else.

He carves out time for the two of them to spend in the palace's library, only to be interrupted for an urgent opinion on the illegal insect trade. She starts conversations with Kaddar over a book or memory or upcoming event, conversations that are never finished because there is always something more important to be done.

When they finally settle in to talk on the plush rug in their lavish rooms, she can barely open her mouth to speak before Kaddar suddenly remembers a late meeting with some obscure organization and scurries off. She sighs quite a few times, as she gets ready for bed alone, but of course it makes no difference.

The first time she tells him she loves him he kisses her for a minute, two, but even that is cut short by people to see, things to do. Fazia tells her with a rare sympathetic look that such is the life of a royal bride. Kally isn't comforted at all.

Seconds last forever but minutes, Kally thinks, can never last quite long enough for an Emperor and Empress too busy to dream, even about each other.


End file.
